The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving texts in any Indo-European language. It is a collection of 1,028 hymns in Vedic Sanskrit, arranged in ten books, which praise deities such as Agni, Indra and Soma and reflect the ritual and religious life of early communities in northwestern South Asia. Scholars usually date its composition to the late second millennium BCE, though the shown date is an approximation. The hymns were passed down orally for many centuries with remarkable precision, and the text remains a foundation of Hindu religious tradition and of the study of early Indian history and language.
Before and after
- 16th century BCEVedas
- from 16th century BCE to 3rd century BCEMumun pottery period
- from 16th century BCE to 1st century BCENok culture
- from c. 1,500 BCE to 500 BCELapita
- c. 1,500 BCERigveda
- c. 1,500 BCEOrigins of Zoroastrianism
- c. 1,460 BCEEruption of Taupo
- c. 1,400 BCEOlmecas
- from c. 1,400 BCE to 1,301 BCE14th century BC
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The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 15th century BCE.